Convention Report: ACEN 2016 (part 2 of 3)

The weekends at Casa Del Mueller usually have a late start to them (for me, anyway…my wife’s a morning person), but convention weekends don’t allow for things like “sleeping in.” No, when you have to be at the convention center before 10am, set up and ready to spend the entire day behind the table selling, you don’t get to hit the snooze button. I usually only hit it twice, but this was not a luxury I would be afforded this weekend.

Do you snooze? If so, how often do you hit the button? Do you listen to radio or the buzzer?

SATURDAY:
We arrived at the convention center just in time to set up before the flood of people came in for the largest day of the show. An ocean of people washed through the isles of artist alley, making it difficult even for people who wanted to stop and shop to do so. But despite all that, Alan and I were at the ready to talk to them, answer their questions, and yes – pitch our books.

And pitch we did.

Alan Evans (Rival Angels) and I, ready for another day of selling comics

“May the Schwartz be with you!” What’s your favorite line from Spaceballs?

By the time 6pm rolled around, my voice was almost gone. And even though the floor was open for another half an hour, we had to pack up and get ready for our back-to-back panels. Panel room 6 was ours for the next two and a half hours, and we were going to own the room in the only way we knew how: by providing fun and educational content for the attendees.

First up was a panel about How to Make Comics, which was really about self-publishing. We had a nearly full room, despite starting a little late (the previous panel ran long, and there was no buffer between panels for them to pack up and for us to set up). We also had to compete with the karaoke going on in the next room over, which became the subject of many a joke during that panel. When a duo started singing “Bring Me to Life” by Evanscence while Alan was giving insightful tips about making comics, I started repeating the main points in the same manner as the song. The audience was in stitches.

The bulk of the time was spent answering questions, mostly story related. We did get a question about how to make comics, which Alan answered about storytelling and I answered from a production standpoint. All in all, it was an incredible panel – which ended with some sales before our next panel in the same room.

Most people stayed for the Making Webcomics panel, despite us being up against the Rave, Soap Bubble, and some other panels from the voice actor guests. Thankfully, the karaoke next door had died down at this time, so we were able to get rowdy and loud with the audience.

Like the last panel, it was mostly Q&A with a lot of fun in the mix. Alan and I provided informative but entertaining answers throughout, and everyone had a fun time. A lot of fun was had, and we even stayed after the panel to answer questions in the hallway (and to sell some of the comics).

After the panel, we hiked to the car and headed back to my neighborhood to buy some pizza and hang out at my place before crashing.

It was a late Saturday, but probably not as late as most. What do you do on Saturdays at cons? How late do you typically stay up?